Busted. Politico changed the headline on its problematic Ben Carson — West Point story from “Ben Carson admits fabricating West Point scholarship” to “Exclusive: Carson claimed West Point ‘scholarship’ but never applied,” but there’s no Editor’s note in the story to alert readers to the change:
New Politico headline eliminates "fabrication" allegation: "Exclusive: Carson claimed West Point 'scholarship' but never applied"
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) November 6, 2015
Politico changes headline and lede on Ben Carson piece — removes line that his campaign admitted to "fabrication" pic.twitter.com/9LIyT8QCvE
— Alex Pappas (@AlexPappas) November 6, 2015
The Politico story on Ben Carson and West Point has undergone significant changes. Several updates. No editors note. https://t.co/pJZVrLm0Fh
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) November 6, 2015
*Not accurate* in Politico story:
-Carson claimed to have applied to West Point.
-Campaign admitted Carson fabricated history.— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) November 6, 2015
Also, taking “fabrication” out of that headline is like taking uranium out of an A-bomb.
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) November 6, 2015
Here are screenshots comparing the two headlines, via the Washington Post’s Dave Weigel:
The lede was changed, too, but there are still problems with it:
Note: Politico just altered the headline and lede to remove the bombshell claims about Carson. Doesn't note that it made the changes.
— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) November 6, 2015
The new Politico lede remains problematic: Carson just now “conceded that he never applied,” tho he wrote that in his memoir 23 years ago.
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) November 6, 2015
And here are screenshots of the changed lede paragraph. The original:
And the new one:
Maybe Politico is new to this Internet thing, but we have ways of checking these things now-a-days. Here’s the original in full:
I suspected Politico would stealth edit article once journos started pushing back on language. So I saved a copy: https://t.co/JIPsY4WWVi
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) November 6, 2015
But the super-stealthy editors missed one. Always check the photo caption, guys!
.@politico also removed "fabricated" claim except in this photo caption https://t.co/zQGRPoqThB pic.twitter.com/8ayHuYH2sY
— Joe Perticone (@JoePerticone) November 6, 2015
Rookies.
Update. Politico has added an editor’s note, but stands by the story:
Politico put a very lengthy editors not on their Carson story, but they're standing by it. https://t.co/rseyzR8THq pic.twitter.com/CeXP6WX0Jt
— andrew kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) November 7, 2015
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